“The results are clear and consistent; exposure to pornographic material puts one at increased risk for [1] developing sexually deviant tendencies, [2] committing sexual offenses, [3] experiencing difficulties in one’s intimate relationships, and [4] accepting the rape myth. In order to promote a healthy and stable society, it is time that we attend to the culmination of sound empirical research.”

Writing in the peer-reviewed Italian medical journal, Medicine, Mind and Adolescence, 2000 (Vol XII, no 1-2, pp 101-112), Dr Claudio Violato states that “research in this area can now move beyond the question of whether pornography has an influence on violence and family functioning.” A META-ANALYSIS OF THE PUBLISHED RESEARCH ON THE EFFECTS OF PORNOGRAPHY was conducted in order to “redirect the focus on the question of pornography’s potential effects to an empirical platform.” Available from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

“Four outcome variables of sexual deviancy (i.e., non-normative sexual behaviours such as early age of first intercourse, excessive or ritualistic masturbation), sexualperpetration (i.e., aggressive, sexually hostile, and violent behaviours), attitudes regarding intimate relationships (i.e., perceptions of dominance, submission, courtship, sex role stereotyping, or viewing persons as sexual objects), and belief in the rape myth (i.e., women cause rape, should resist or prevent it, and rapists are normal) were coded for effect sizes.”

This authoritative study contains 46 empirical investigations “indicating the consistent negative effect of exposure to pornography in each of these four areas. Consistent with previous Meta-Analyses… the results of the present meta-analysis suggest that exposure to pornography produces a variety of substantial negative outcomes.”

The New Scientist of 5 May 1990 contains a cover story entitled, “The Power of Pornography”. In the article Flesh and Blood, pp 19-23, students watched varying amounts of pornographic film over a 6 week period. “Following this the students were asked to do several psychological tests” including watching a rape trial re-enactment. When asked to sentence the rapist “Men who had not watched the films suggested sentences of 7 years 11 months on average, while those in the ‘massive exposure’ group (4 hrs 48 min total over 6 weeks) sentenced the rapist to only 4 years 2 months.” The groups who were massively exposed to porn looked upon rape as a less serious offence. This same study also documented that “Students in the massive exposure group had significantly higher callousness scores that those who had seen no pornography.”

“PORNIFIED: How Pornography Is Damaging Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families”, published by Pamela Paul in 2006 quotes A Systematic Review of the Effects of Aggressive and Nonaggresive Pornography by Drs Lyon and Larson. They reviewed 81 peer-reviewed scientific research studies from 1981 to the present.

Most, if not all, of the important studies in the field of visual or audio pornography were included. Their professional analysis concluded, “Systematic research results suggest that exposure to pornography does have an important causal impact.”

Drs Lyon and Larson also found that studies of so-called ‘non violent’ pornography also show harmful effects. “Non-violent pornography contributes to aggressive and callous attitudes and behaviour towards women.”

The Canadian Fraser Commission on Pornography and Prostitution also studied the impact of violent and non-violent pornography. Their startling finding was that when it came to forcing women into unwanted sex acts “commonly available, non-violent pornography had a substantially greater impact than violent pornography.” [Pornography: Research Advances and Policy Considerations, Lawrence Earlbaum Assoc, Hillsdale NJ, 1989, pp 147-151]

Dr Kelly Ladin L’Engle, Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. published The mass media are an important context for adolescent’s sexual behaviour in the March 2006 Journal of Adolescent Health.

Dr L’Engle compared the impact of family, religion, school, peers and media and found ”media influences made a significant contribution beyond the effect from these other contexts.” She refers to the media as a “super peer”. http://teenmedia.unc.edu In her conclusions she states, “Adolescents who are exposed to more sexual content in the media, and who perceive greater support from the media for teen sexual behaviour, report greater intentions to engage in sexual intercourse and more sexual activity. Mass media are an important context for adolescents’ sexual socialisation, and media influences should be considered in research and interventions with early adolescents to reduce sexual activity.”

Dr L’Engle’s research with the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, was cited in current peer-reviewed scientific journals such as the March 2007 Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Dec 2006 Pediatrics, Nov 2006 ANNALS of the New York Academy of Sciences, Aug 2006 Obstetrics and Gynecology and several other prominent scientific and medical journals. Their reports can be seen at http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/117/4/1018

Although porn apologists encourage widespread use of their products and insist pornography is harmless, graphic sex films have for years been used to recondition sex behaviour. This simply reinforces our warning concerning pornography causing behavioural change. The Link Between Pornography and Violent Sex Crimes by Robert Peters, President of Morality in Media in Manhattan quotes Dr Victor Cline’s “Use of Sexually Explicit Films to Change Behaviour and Attitudes” where he states that “… no responsible sex therapist would ever say to a patient who had a specifically focused sexual problem, ‘Go down to the adult bookshop and help yourself to anything you can find there.’”http://www.moralityinmedia.org/pornsEffects/Porn-Crime-Link-RWP.htm (archived copy)

In her seminal book “Pornified” (Owl Books 2006) author Pamela Paul says, “Religious men, of course, look at pornography too.” Jonathan Daugherty, founder of Be Broken Ministries is quoted as saying, “At least half of the men in Christian churches struggle with pornography. It’s become the leading factor in divorce. Christianity Today and Leadership magazines report about 40% of clergy admitting to visiting sexually explicit websites. Another poll, conducted by Pastors.com in 2002 found 50% of pastors admitting to viewing pornography in the previous year. Corporate Chaplain Henry Rogers says 40% to 70% of evangelical Christian men say they struggle with pornography. A 2000 poll by Focus on the Family found 18% of those calling themselves ‘born again’ Christians admit to visiting porn sites.” As Pamela Paul correctly states, “It’s not necessarily the righteous who abstain.”

Former Chairman of the Standing Committee on Social Issues for the New South Wales government in Australia, Dr Marlene Goldsmith commented on the now infamous cover of the common Aussie porn magazine, PEOPLE. The magazine cover features a naked woman on all fours with a dog collar on a leash. She says, “… imagine a naked Aboriginal man in the same position. The image becomes appalling – a legitimisation of racism. Aboriginal people are entitled to be treated with dignity. So, I would argue, are women.”

Along with the above quote from QUADRANT magazine, Nov 1993, Dr Goldsmith rightly says, “We spend millions on affirmative action, we profess (at least publicly) horror at racism, and yet misogynistic visual images are, to many, sacrosanct. Women are being raped, beaten, murdered, but their right to life and liberty is considered less than the right to purchase or profit from pornography.”

www.dianarussell.com tells you almost everything you need to know about the detrimental effects of pornography and how to better protect your families.

After the recent spate of Aboriginal sexual atrocities highlighted in Australia’s Little Children are Sacred report, Prime Minister John Howard placed mandatory bans on X rated pornography in the Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. The sale, hire and display (but not possession) of X rated pornography is already prohibited in each Australian state, it is only available through a thriving mail order business in the Territories, mainly Australia’s Capital Territory, Canberra. Due to the fact that the Prime Minister now recognises pornography causes harm and armed with new empirical studies proving the link between pornography and imitative criminal behaviour, AFF is calling on the Prime Minister to better protect all Australians by extending the ban to the rest of Australia.

In an address to the Victorian Criminal Justice Symposium, Victorian Barrister and Chairman of Forensic Psychology at Melbourne’s Monash University, Dr Don Thompson states “pornography is causally related to sexually violent behaviour” and Victorian Crown Prosecutor Richard Read says there “definitely is a very clear link” between the two.

Dr Judith Reisman www.drjudithreisman.com has been an invaluable aid to us in this “winnable war.” She was responsible for the banning of X rated material on Australian Pay TV and has met with many Australian state and federal MPs. Her important work in Australia has been broadcast on all of Australia’s most influential media programs, including her address to the National Press Club. Her work was instrumental in forcing Australian Penthouse, Playboy and Hustler to stop using 16 and 17 year-old girls. She is reportedly due back in Australia in September to address the National Marriage Forum in our federal Parliament House in Canberra.

Professor John Murtaugh, Medical Editor of Australian Family Physician magazine says “ideas – and images – have consequences.” He adds, “We have a major problem: our society it seems cannot come to terms with the widespread concern about the proliferation of permissive sex and violence …” Australian Family Physician Vol. 21, No 6, June 1992.

Over the years, Jack Sonnemann, Director of the Australian Federation for the Family, has defeated Playboy magazine in Australia, raised the age of girls to appear in porn, stopped all of the Australian based Dial-a-Porn phone sex numbers, led successful boycott campaigns against the commercial sponsors of sex and violence in print and broadcast media in Australia and has initiated significant changes in federal and state legislation all across the nation.

Sonnemann has been asked to address legislators in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) in Canberra on 17 September 2007 concerning his plan to ban X rated porn in the nation’s capital. After a recent series of highly successful church and public meetings, media appearances and political appointments in the ACT Assembly as well as the Federal Parliament,Jack Sonnemann conducted a well-attended Powerpoint presentation in the Assembly Hall. This convinced the Liberal (conservative) Party to adopt his policies of banning X rated porn in all of Australia. He will address the Liberal Party Room in the Legislative Assembly in Canberra on 17 September.

Australia announced that it would be the first country in the western world to ban same-sex marriage on 27 May 2004 with a media release by the Attorney General the Honourable Philip Ruddock MP titled “Government Defends Marriage”. Australia has the real opportunity to be the first country in the western world to ban X rated pornography.

About A.F.F.

We have been full time lobbyists for Aussie families since 1983. AFF is dedicated to upholding Biblical family values, promoting a Biblical Christian worldview, and educating and mobilising concerned individuals to positively affect their homes, communities, country and world.

We not only encourage Christians to be "salt" and "light", but provide credible strategies for doing so. One of our specific goals is the removal of pornography from the family marketplace where children have access.

Contact A.F.F.

Australian Federation for the Familyc/o Grove Post OfficeGroveTAS 7109Australia